The National Science Foundation, Public Library of Science and the San Diego Supercomputing Center have partnered to set up what can best be described as a "YouTube for scientists", SciVee". Scientists can upload their research papers, accompanied by a video where they describe the work in the form of a short lecture, accompanied by a presentation. The formulaic, technical style of scientific writing, the heavy jargonization and the need for careful elaboration often renders reading papers a laborious effort. SciVee's creators hope that that the appeal of a video or audio explanation of paper will make it easier for others to more quickly grasp the concepts of a paper and make it more digestible both to colleagues and to the general public.
Also see the SciVee about page and FAQ. From the FAQ:
We are unable to accept non-open access publications, but we encourage you to have your paper published with an online open access publisher....
You can make a video of yourself speaking about a paper you have published, or even just record your voice, and then (using the SciVee website) synchronize your presentation with the display of text and figures from your paper. It is kind of like giving a talk at a conference where the audience can see you and also see your visual aids - except the SciVee fits on a computer screen and the audience can view it anytime, anyplace (as long as they have an internet connection)....
We hope that SciVees will encourage and faciliate communication between peers through supportive comments and ideas about about how to improve or extend the research. You could also consider the comments as a place to write a short review of the article or direct readers to other SciVees or papers of interest....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/20/2007 10:40:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
